So bloody unfair

[igglepigglesbestie]

Just a rant that after months of going through with our sale and purchase and god knows how much spent on searches and surveys our chain has collapsed.
First time buyers at the bottom have changed their minds a week before exchange.
How is it fair that they cause thousands of pounds to be spent throughout a chain and can just pull out scott free?
Makes me so angry.

When will England come up with some sort of protection for buyers/sellers?

It isn’t fair it is by far the most stressful thing I have ever gone through (and I have 2 weddings, 3 kids and a divorce under my belt) I think it should be like the Scottish system and I don’t understand why it is allowed

Ours is a pretty long chain too. 5 properties involved. Even if each buyer has spent a grand on searches and surveys then that’s £5000 spent for nothing, with no repercussions for those who pull out.
It’s literally crazy.

We really don’t have £1000 to lose 😩
Have been putting off and putting off getting our survey done as we were worried about losing £600 incase something went wrong, but you have to fork out for it at some point.
Thought 2 weeks before exchange was safe enough.

I’m sorry that happened to you. The law really should be changed on this

And to top it all off, we’ve discovered that the chain collapsed 4 weeks ago, but instead of being honest with us, the people at the bottom of the chain have put their property back on with an online agent in hope of salvaging things and have only told us the truth today.
I’m so so angry.

It's horrible but when this happens to buyers there is never the same uproar. Sellers pull out or go with higher offers all the time. Presumably if your survey had come back & was terrible you'd have pulled out causing the chain to collapse very close to exchange too.

The system is terrible.

Such a shame that the home information packs never really happened properly. It was a good idea, as usual, badly implemented by the government of the day.

I don’t think I’d have pulled out unless the house was un mortgageable. If the survey came back as horrendous I would have negotiated on price if anything.
This is just so stressful.

Might it be salvaged? If the first property is back on the market, perhaps it’ll all work out just with a delay.

Possibly. Everything is back on the market so we shall see.

unfortunately if you've got selfish liars in the chain you are vulnerable. and you had. It may all work out, hope so.

I’m really hoping for a few buyer and new chain.
Lost all faith in the people in our chain.

So sorry to hear. This happened to us. Within the same week first our vendors and then the first time buyers at the bottom of the chain pulled out. After months of conveyancing. We lost thousands in the process. We are in a new chain now but I am very apprehensive and will only relax once we complete.
The system in England is ridiculous. People don’t actually have to commit until pretty much the last minute.

I’m sorry to hear it happened to you too.
It just messes up people’s plans. For months our kids have been talking about the new house, my dd was so excited we were moving next door to her best friend, we’ve even looked at new Childminder’s as ours doesn’t cover that area.
Not to mention the £££ of pounds spent.
I just feel gutted and really down.

I'm sorry, the government will be too busy with Brexit over the next decade, which will give them another brilliant excuse not to do anything about the dysfunctional housing market in this country.

I'm sorry, the government will be too busy with Brexit over the next decade, which will give them another brilliant excuse not to do anything about the dysfunctional housing market in this country.

Shame that Labour botched the home information pack implementation a decade ago. A lot of today's problems could have been avoided had they done the job properly with a workable scheme.

It’s just crazy that it’s such a gamble. You wouldn’t give anyone else thousands with the chance you might lose it all.
The system clearly needs to change.

@user1497207191 shame indeed. Both parties have been beyond useless. Stupid schemes like Help to Buy actually make things worse. It's like putting a small dirty plaster on a giant gangrenous wound and saying "problem solved!". But hey, most MPs have benefitted from this mess. Look at Tony Blair and his beautiful portfolio of properties.